


Runaway

by Puffinpastry



Category: Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Fluff, Hero | Luminary is Named Eleven | El (Dragon Quest XI), M/M, Mute Hero | Luminary (Dragon Quest XI), Nonspecific act iii spoilers, Post-Canon, SoSValenslimes, getting drunk on a beach avoiding responsibility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:49:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29412198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Puffinpastry/pseuds/Puffinpastry
Summary: “But you’ve got zoom.” Erik paused. “And you’ve got me. What more do you need?”
Relationships: Camus | Erik/Hero | Luminary (Dragon Quest XI)
Comments: 21
Kudos: 25
Collections: Valenslimes Day 2021





	Runaway

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Galaxy_Phoenix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galaxy_Phoenix/gifts).



> Hello Star! I hope you enjoy! :D

“So, how long until they notice we ditched ‘em?” 

To be frank, El didn’t give a shit. He shrugged, and that was as good of an answer as he was willing to give. 

Eleven, honored Luminary, the long-lost (and found, too! Did that really count? Was he  _ found  _ like some old priceless antique or was he still technically  _ lost?)  _ prince of Dundrasil. Had returned triumphant to the cause he was born for, crowned to the lost throne and knighted for his feat of bravery… 

And half the world away from where he was meant to be at that exact moment in time. 

But he felt no stirrings of guilt. After all, he couldn’t exactly hear the celebrations in Heliodor all the way to the uninhabited coasts outside Lonalulu.

Even the thought of the consequences later on…

He couldn’t help but smile at the thought of the King and  _ all~  _ of the castle taking up search for him once they actually pulled their heads out of their asses and realized the object of their celebrations was missing.

Not that his friends would be worried for long. Once they realized he was gone, they’d realize Erik was missing, too. They’d make the connection, then.

Zoom was really such a handy little spell, wasn’t it?

So effortless to cast, so endlessly useful, so easy to abuse. 

“What?” Erik asked, seeing the self-satisfied little smile and returning it with one of his own, “not too worried about the trouble you’ll be in?” Erik had been a strictly terrible influence. Right from the very moment they’d met.

El hoped he would only prove to remain one.  _ ‘Trouble that  _ we’ll  _ be in.’  _ He corrected, letting the specification hang for far longer than it needed to. If Erik honestly thought he was going to walk away scot-free, that was just on him. 

Come to think of it, there wasn’t a single little misbehavior of his own that Erik didn’t at least get the stink-eye for.

Like Erik had  _ taught  _ him to flip people off and it wasn’t just something he and Gemma both had learned and been swiftly punished for using ages before.

Though to be fair Jade’s initial abject terror at seeing him use vulgar signs had been more than just amusing for far, far,  _ far  _ too long. 

If he actually sat down to count, El was sure he’d find that he’d sworn more in that first week of knowing her than he had in the rest of his life.

“Nah,  _ just you.”  _ Erik argued right back, rolling onto his side in the sand, propping his head up in one hand to poke El in the cheek with the other.  _ “You’re  _ stuck, mister-prince-of-Dundrasil.  _ I,  _ however, can just jump out a window and book it.” 

Well. He wasn’t exactly wrong. 

But still… 

El batted Erik’s hand away and sat up on the beach. 

The waves crashed against the rocks as the tide pulled away. It was loud. Deafening. But at this point… Sailing for so long, listening to the wind up on Ceteca’s back if not the crash of the sea down on Sylvando’s ship… 

It sounded like home, somehow. 

More than some castle did. Be it the one rebuilt in his ancestral home or the one he’d just let Erik convince him to run away from, just for the night.

Hell… Not even Cobblestone really sounded like home, anymore. Quiet and tranquil and idyllic. 

No. Home sounded like the outside. Wind and water and campfires and a bubbling stewpot. Quiet chatter and whetstone against a blade, Rab snoring and the rest of his friends trying to puzzle out a way to shut him up so the rest of them could sleep. 

It sounded like Veronica whining about her little legs and sore feet, the horn Sylvando pulled out whenever one of them lagged behind.

But most of all… 

It sounded like planning out their next move. It sounded like Erik going over the map with him, like the way he full-out cackled when he managed to infuriate Veronica into speechlessness, or goad Jade into a mock-fight, finally looking to redeem himself from their meeting in Octogonia.

And now… 

It seemed like he was moving house.

“You good?” Erik asked, but he stayed on the sand as Eleven nodded his half-agreement.

He was fine. He’d be fine.

But…

Not really. 

His mug was empty. He grabbed the bottle Erik had nicked back in Lonalulu and held it to the moonlight.

Nearly all gone.

Well, no real point in pouring it into his mug then, was there?

“No, please go ahead.” Erik said from behind him as El tipped his head back and drank from the bottle. “I didn’t want any more, don’t worry about me.”

Despite what he said, he didn’t show any hesitation in snatching it away. “Seriously? The hell is up with you?”

El grimaced from the burn in his stomach and the foul taste in his mouth. He didn’t know why Erik had to steal  _ this  _ of all things. They were in  _ Lonalulu.  _ Surely he could’ve snatched something more palatable. 

“Damn.” Erik muttered, shrugged, and downed what little was left without batting an eye. “Okay, then.” he said after he’d wiped his mouth off on his sleeve, the whiskey probably staining the nice fabric of the shirt he’d been shoved into for the ceremony, but what was a stain when he’d already ripped the button and ruffle at the neck trying to loosen it. Did it matter? Heliodor could afford it. “Guess we need some more.”

Yes, more. 

More was a good idea. 

Erik got up, bottle in hand, and El made to follow. Maybe if he went with, he could have some say in what Erik snatched. Reaching for his coat, Erik snorted at him.

“What are you getting that for? Leave it.”

El paused. 

It was one thing for  _ Erik  _ to ruin the clothes he was given. The man had a deep-seated hatred of nearly anything pointlessly fancy, as long as he wasn’t planning on selling it. It was pretty much expected for that outfit to meet its fate from the moment it was handed over.

But El didn’t exactly have that luxury. 

He was  _ coronated  _ in that coat. 

That was probably some kind of keepsake or something, right? 

_ ‘Why would I leave it?’ _

“We should move light, at first.” Erik said, offering El a hand up, and pulling him back up to unsteady feet. “Probably get something different to wear for  _ both  _ of us.” He wrinkled his nose at the mess of sand that had gotten trapped in the fabric. “This is all pretty much ruined, anyway.”

_ Oops.  _

But more importantly —  _ ‘Move light?’ _

“Yeah,” Erik said, and started bare-foot down the old dirt path that led back to Lonalulu, “I dunno where  _ you  _ have in mind, but I want to stick around here for a while. We didn’t explore  _ any.  _ What all could we have missed?”

El, busy trying to sidestep oyster shells and the little creatures that he didn’t see but that he  _ knew  _ lived on the beach, was still a little bit lost. 

He could only focus on so many things like this!

“And you better get thinkin’, because I want you to pick the place after that.”

_ After that…  _ They'd gone to Nautica right after Lonalulu before. They didn’t stay there long, either.

Which was a  _ shame.  _ He’d liked it there.

He’d liked being a fish, too. 

He’d like to be a fish, again.

Maybe Queen Marina would be able to make Erik a fish this time, too.

But  _ what kind  _ would Erik be? True, he didn’t even know what kind of fish he had been, but he hadn’t exactly had the time to stop and puzzle it out, or have the digits to form his question.

That was probably the only downside…

But! More importantly,  _ fish Erik… _

A lionfish, for sure. A bright, blue, spiny lionfish. 

But that would be dangerous, wouldn’t it? No one would be able to get close, and that’d be a shame. 

So, no lionfish. Check that off the list. But if not that… Maybe El was focusing too much on the  _ spikey _ and less on the everything else. 

He didn’t even really know what decided these things.

...maybe he’d be a sardine. Or a shrimp.

“The hell are you grinning about?” Eleven stopped in his tracks, and stared at Erik. He hadn’t any way of knowing what he was thinking about, did he?

No. Of course he didn’t.

Feigning innocence, El pointed a finger at himself, slowly shook his head and tried to look surprised.  _ Me?  _ He tried to say,  _ why would I be thinking anything untoward? _

But his act wasn’t bought. Erik snorted, and turned back around. “Dumbass.” He muttered to himself, and kept walking. 

Not innocent but not convicted, El smiled and followed.

He’d missed this more than he knew.

When his journey had just started, and the world still seemed so new. 

It was just them and some vague notion of where they needed to go next. 

It was nice to have it again. Even for just a little while. 

He heard Lonalulu long before it came into view. The villagers crowded along the docks, milling around the bar as they all came and went. 

One group was setting something up at the top of the highest cliff. 

But El wasn’t given the time to wonder as Erik pulled him back towards the crowd. 

“I’ll be right back.” Erik promised, heading off to shove himself to the front of the line.

Done with stealing for the night, it seemed. 

At least, from the villagers. El knew better than to assume that was  _ Erik’s  _ own money that he slid across the table top. 

“Come on,” Erik said, holding El’s glass just out of reach. “I’m not hanging around this mess. Let’s find somewhere else.”

Fresh drinks, just a moment too late. Even if these were sweet and fruity and  _ so  _ much better than whiskey. The buzz wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. But much of the silly was slowly tapering off to just being  _ sad. _

Last night before it was all over, huh?

Even if they weren’t drunk enough to forget, they were surely drunk enough to be braver than they really were. ‘ _ You really wanna know what’s ‘up with’ me?’ _

“If you wanna tell.”

Well, that was always it, huh?  _ ‘I don't want to deal with what comes next.’ _ He didn’t want to. But he wasn’t in control of his own voice. Not unusual, come to think of it. Even if he absolutely could just stop moving his hands at any time now.  _ ‘Being the prince, rebuilding my kingdom…’  _ he didn’t want tomorrow to come.  _ ‘I don’t want to give up what I’ve got now.’ _

“Is that it?” Erik snorted. “I knew that much!” 

Eleven just stared. Erik was the one who wanted him to bare his soul and all that, and yet he just laughed?  _ Rude.  _ Expected, but rude. 

“You’re quiet, but you’re pretty much an open book, yanno.” Erik informed him, and Eleven pretended for a moment to be offended. 

Erik leaned back against one of the pillars and let out a long sigh, like he was preparing a long lecture.

Eleven shut his eyes, and wondered how he’d expected anything else.

He’d heard it all before. This was what he was born for.

His duty as the Luminary, his birthright as the heir to the Drasilian throne…

It was what he was born for. 

It wasn’t a choice. He just needed to be strong and bear it.

For the rest of his life.

He’d heard it all already, so if Erik could just hurry it along so he could go and try to get some more-

“So you can handle being Yggie’s favorite little leaf, but not some pampered little prince?”

Ugh.  _ ‘Anything but. It’s different.’  _ Eleven said, opening his eyes to stare at the sandy ground, at the wobbly, uneven footprints they’d left coming from the beach, falling off each other as they tried to figure out where to go.

“Well,  _ yeah.”  _ Erik agreed when Eleven didn’t go into any detail. “I’m just sayin’. It’s funny.”

He went quiet, and neither one of them wanted to break the quiet.

But one of them had to.

“You know you don’t  _ have  _ to go back.”

Eleven whipped his head around to stare, shocked and confused. Uh, of course he did? That was the whole _point_ of the party they’d ditched! He was crowned, he was celebrated, his victory was yelled from every corner of the kingdom, and every corner of the _world…_ There wasn’t one village in Erdrea that wasn’t celebrating their newfound peace and prosperity. 

And as the person who  _ brought  _ them that peace… he found himself with more riding on his shoulders than ever before.

He had to be the Luminary, the hero, the representation of all that he had done, all that he could, the person to keep that fragile peace in place.

He had to go back.

Didn’t he?

“You already ditched your party.”

He had. But he’d really just traded it out for a different one. 

“Who says you’ve gotta go back right away?” Erik asked, and… he  _ did  _ have something of a point. He’d run off for the night. But why did that mean he had to go crawling home at first light? Why not stay a little while, enjoy himself a little… “They’re gonna be pissed no matter what.”

Okay. Eleven could admit that Erik had probably been more than just a poor influence if his reaction to that was nothing short of _glee._

But more important than his late-onset juvenile delinquency —  _ ‘you were serious?’ _

“About what?”

_ ‘Exploring.’  _ Eleven reminded him. What else? 

“I didn’t think I  _ sounded  _ like I was joking.” Erik said. “Look. If you don’t wanna be prince then you don’t have to be prince. It’s that simple. I know you don’t, why do you think I snuck you out tonight?”

_ Is it, though?  _ El nearly asked, but decided not to at the last moment. He’d need both hands at some point if he really wanted to talk, and he’d rather not spill his drink all in the sand.

Someone called from up near the village, and someone else responded from up on the cliff.

But the cannon wasn’t what was being fired off.

The dark of night was split in half by fantastic color and a crack just almost distinguishable from thunder.

The villagers cheered, and the firework fizzled out just as another was shot off.

Reds just like the missing Erdwin’s Lantern. Golds just like the power he never asked for.

No matter where he went, he was being celebrated.

No matter where he went, he was still himself. He was still Amber’s little boy, Jade’s brother, Gemma’s best friend…

Son of Irwin and Eleanor. 

The Prince of Dundrasil.

Yggdrasil’s chosen leaf. 

The honored Luminary.

“We can find a ship.” Erik said, raising his voice to be heard over the light show, but so far below the people gathered on the docks… They wouldn’t be noticed. “You’ve probably got enough saved up by now to buy one if you’re feelin’ lawful. Or I could find a good one some Gondolian tycoon won’t miss.”

Making plans…. 

Erik always made these things sound so easy. As if all they had to do to succeed was to  _ not fail. _

And even if that was technically true, the blind faith with which he went about it was entirely something else. “We’ve got the whole world, this time. There’s so much  _ just  _ in Erdrea we didn’t see… And after we see it all, I say we grab Mia and go see what else is out there.”

El looked for the safest-looking place in the sand for about half a second before he gave up and shoved his drink at Erik. 

He didn’t need his hands.

_ ‘They won’t just let me go.’  _ Eleven pointed out. There’d be an uproar. Search parties. Bounties. Jade herself would be out leading the charge.  _ ‘We’ll be chased.’ _

“And?” Erik asked, all too happy to serve as a drink coaster for the moment. “We ran from Hendrik for ages and that turned out just fine.”

_ ‘We nearly got shot with arrows and I fell off a cliff.’ _

“But!” Erik grinned, “you lived!”

The man was insane.

Well.

So was El at this point.

“So, maybe no ship until we’re done with Erdrea. But you’ve got zoom.” Erik paused. “And you’ve got me.”

He did… 

“What more do you need?”

He needed freedom. But that was what Erik was offering.

He needed to be happy. But if Erik was going to stay… Then he was offering that, too. 

_ ‘I don’t want to vanish entirely.’  _ Eleven said, laying out a few scant conditions.  _ ‘I don’t want to worry mum and Gemma back home.’ _

“Zoom.” Erik said yet again. “I’m not going to stop you from seeing your family.”

_ ‘I don’t ever want to go back to Yggdrasil or Arboria.’ _

“God, why would you?” 

_ ‘And… I don’t want to abandon my friends.’  _ If he had to, then… that would be another thing. But if they were really his friends, they’d want him happy above all else. Sylvando knew what it was to leave home for the sake of their own happiness. The twins got it, too. Rab would want what was best for him, but he’d likely get it in the end. Even if he had to run from them for a little while… what was an adventure without a little risk?

“Not very demanding tonight, are we?” Erik asked, and pushed El’s glass back at him. “I’ll drink to those rules.”

The lull in fireworks ceased, and three whistles went up as the last were lit.

“So, what do you say, partner?” Erik asked, and he saw the beginnings of a smile pull at the corners of El’s lips. “The whole world’s out there. Wanna run away with me?”

**Author's Note:**

> And they’re off to run from royal duties and into the horizon, inadvertently causing mayhem wherever they go and giving Hendrik job security.


End file.
